Word Origin & History

"building for worship," Old English tempel, from Latin templum "piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, building for worship," of uncertain signification. Commonly referred either to PIE root *tem- "to cut," on notion of "place reserved or cut out," or to PIE root *temp- "to stretch," on notion of cleared space in front of an altar. Figurative sense of "any place regarded as occupied by divine presence" was in Old English. Applied to Jewish synagogues from 1590s.

Example Sentences for temple

She helped Geta to escape: they have both taken refuge in the Temple of Theseus.

The child was preserved, and brought up in the temple of Phœbus.

"And I will have the stone from the temple," cried Hordle John.

But his head was whirling round, the blood was gushing from his brow, his temple, his mouth.

Priestess of the Corn,' she called toward the temple, 'do you also mislead the people?'

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

He was set to work performing to the utmost the duties for which the temple called.

Hitherto Mr. Temple's narratives had all been about boys and men.

And it all happened, too, not far from that old ink-bottle's place in Temple Bar.

It is a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple of fame.